Friday, August 26, 2011

For the last couple weeks I have been in the dumps. I have no idea why just nothing appealed to me. I really dislike it when I get like that but hey, it happens so what do you do? Well if you are me you read... a LOT. Especially pioneer style books or Grace Livingston Hill books. You also listen to up beat hymns over and over and over again. Then one day, like today you wake up with a song on your lips and a bounce in your step and the urge to once again be creative.

I looked over the aprons I have made and decided to go for a bit of frill on this next one. This one became an experiment. I had a bland purple pattern cut already. So I dug into my stash of rick rack and laces and goodness knows what :

This is a 7 drawer chest. 6 of which are stuffed with rick rack and laces and who knows what all. There is more in the closet in a basket and in a box under the sewing table and... you get the idea.

This pile is what I began with:

Since this was an experiment and not up for sale I did it free hand and did not do all the ironing I do on ones for sale. I made a few mistakes in it too, probably because I did not preiron the seams.

Sew Sew Sew:

Tada:

This apron has the ties at the top, they cross over in the back and go through loops to tie at the waist. I have an apron in this style made for me by a sweet lady I have lost touch with. I love it but for 1 thing. It has no pockets. I need pockets. However I can never decide if I want deep or wide ones. (Great now that hymn is going through my head but I only know part of it! )

So on this apron I put one of each so I can see which I use most often.

I also used a combination of stitches, #1 and #3 on this.

For an extra bit of frill I added the vintage lace along the bottom. I know it is not real fancy but it satisfied my urge for a pretty apron. I got to sew and sing hymns and have a really happy morning!

Monday, August 1, 2011

I had another health scare with my Beloved but he is back on track now.

I have several aprons cut that I need to sew. Today however I decided to work on an idea that has been on my mind the last few days.

I read... a lot... and I enjoy fancy book marks. Some books like my Bibles have many places marked. You know certain scriptures just fill a need at any moment. Instead of turning pages to find them when needed I like to just open up to them.

I have a lot of scraps of this and that. I also have a ton of lace, binding and rick rack to find uses for.

So I began with this one fabric scrap in particular and decided I wanted a book mark out of it. I found a cool color to back it with and a lace I felt worked with the very busy pattern and away I went.

I began with this:

A Bit of fabric, some vintage feeling lace and a jean leg.

Ironed:

Sewed:

And came up with this:

What do you think?

I have decided the jean material for the backing is too thick I think. It was hard to hold still going around the corners... I have 1 more bit of the busy fabric to use up and I have a different type of blue fabric I may try it with...